There are children who need both their shoes tied to exactly the same tightness and those who can walk well with their shoes on the opposite feet and in one instance backward. There are children who work very hard to master new skills and some who seem to absorb new learning without effort. Some children approach the playground cautiously and walk all around the equipment, watching some run out and up to the top of the climber and then stop to think about how to get down. There are children who always want to be with another child or adult and those who are quite content to be busy by themselves. They all have their own personalities distinct from each other, their parents and their siblings. N his book In Their Own Way, Thomas Armstrong tells u “Don’t expect your child to learn according to some universal norm. There I really no such thing as normal. Instead, there is a group of individuals each processing a set of unique traits, strengths and potentials that are there to be nurtured and developed.”

What most of us want for our children is for their school experience to give them chances to learn and experience community and social life with her children while supporting them in their very individual personality development.

Montessori determined that the main goal of the child in the period from birth to age six is the development of the self as an individual being. Their self-centeredness at this age is practical. They are forming the adults they will become.

Two strengths help them in this task. Periods of concentrating on specific skill development are called sensitive periods. For example, walking, talking, discovering order and counting. The second strength he called the absorbent mind. This is the ability to take in through all of their senses whatever is in their environment. Creating the self may sound like a funny concept but studies have shown that the physiology of the brain changes in response to the environment. (The Modular Brain by Richard Restak).

One of the ways the Montessori classroom supports the child’s individuality is in the commitment to freedom of choice. Alfie Kohn says in Unconditional Parenting, “All of us have a basic need to be originators in our lives rather than pawns. It is important to experience a sense of autonomy, a feeling that we are the initiators of much what we do. In fact, the particular choices we make are often less significant than the act of choosing itself. I forgot those one evening when my son, age 3 ½, asked me for a sticker book. I found a collection of them in the closet, selected one with a truck theme that I thought he would like, and handed it to him. ‘No,’ he insisted, ‘I want to pick.’ I put the book back and gave him the whole pile. Guess which one he ended up taking. Research clearly demonstrates the benefits of having the chance to choose.”

Our children can choose what material to work with; from among those they have been presented. They choose where in the room to work and how long to work with one material. They can choose to ask a friend to join them and whether or not to record their work, when they can write.

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